A Baking Journey - Ciabatta

I have always been highly entertained by books and catalogues. I think the most entertaining gift I received at Christmas was the the toy catalogue. I could imagine how I would play with all the toys. Hours and hours would pass with me happy entertaining myself. Guess I always was an introvert, shocking I know.

As I grew older I could entertain myself the same way with cookbooks. (Oh heck any book would do, but today's story is about cookbooks OK?)

I have spent many an hour looking through my most comprehensive baking book in my collection, King Arthur Flour Baker's Companion. It is an aspiration baking book to me. Ranging across pancakes, crackers, bread, pies, cakes, cookies, puddings, crumbles, scones, biscuits and dang near everything else but the kitchen sink. 

I think I received my copy as a Christmas present from my MIL or my mom, in one of the first years of my marriage. Sorry I don't remember which it was I'm just happy they indulged my love of books and dreaming.

Anyways back to today's story. I have poured over this book and thought of all the wonderful things I could bake then selected a recipe and was promptly intimidated. Some days I just get overwhelmed with all I could be doing so I just don't. Other days I select a recipe and read through it and think to myself I could just bake something I know, maybe there is a reason some of this is not baked anymore. Some of it is just a big ol' faff.

Since we have been watching Great British Bake Off (GBBO), my sense of hey we should try that has been over stimulated. (I am still not making puff pastry!) A wild hare caught me and I decided to try making Ciabatta. I mean it looks so wonderful when they make it on GBBO.

Luckily I only read the first few steps to make the biga and let it develop overnight. Hey I can do that, mix a bit and let it do all the work for you. Ha! This was an all day recipe. Mind you it was not work intensive but an all day recipe. 

My biga developed overnight and turned into this wonderful smelling, bubbly concoction. Nothing like bubbly bready stuff to make you feel like baking in the morning.

We followed the directions and got my trusty Kitchen Aid kneading the dough. Now this one I do remember, Mom bought my Kitchen Aid as a wedding present. She has been my trusty companion through good and bad baking. Luckily for Hubby there has been more good than bad. It finally formed a wet slappy dough and it was time to start the waiting.

 

I mean come on isn't that gorgeous? Nothing like bread dough to make you feel all powerful and baking queen-ish.

This recipe had us knocking down the dough every 45 minutes, for 3 hours. Honestly is there much better than sinking your freshly washed hands into fluffy, stretchy, yeasty goodness?

I made D take pictures next to my favorite spoon rest. I love that thing so much I got a second one. Every time I see "I licked the spoon" I giggle to myself. 

He took a glamour shot after the final in bowl prove. Don't you just want to sink your hands in there?

We shaped them and left them to rise on another of my MIL Christmas gifts a Silpat mat. Loved it so much I got myself a second one. One of them gets used every weekend for scone making. I even made some twice baked potatoes last week on them too. I love having the right tools for the job at hand. 

The weird part of the recipe is that you spritz water into the oven to create steam while baking. I'm not sure how effective this technique was for us but we did it each time. I have used a hot pan that you fill with water right after the bread goes into the oven.

 

Loaf One

 

Our results speak for themselves. We had a fun afternoon together creating this lovely Ciabatta. It may not be perfect but it is great for a first attempt. D found a recipe that takes less time but honestly this was a nice way to spend a Sunday with my Hubby. Burt was rather put out by all the up and down. He has some pretty strong cat napping skills though and was able to recover from each disturbance. 

Loaf two

Underside of loaf two

Don't worry D got to participate as not just the photographer too. He knocked it down at least once and he figured out sitting them near a window in the sunlight would make a nice proving place.That final prove was all him.

 Not perfect but still great especially for a first effort. Now onto Focaccia and crackers. 

Is it wrong to try making Christmas Scones in January? I think I am still going to try them out too. We still have to do a Jelly roll, and fig bars and...

Knitting Time

Well look at this I am on my way to finishing my first pair of socks for 2022. Yes I am rather proud of myself, why do you ask?

My first socks from yarn I brought back from Czechia in 2019. You know before the world went into a tailspin? You know the before times? Well anyways it was rather uninspiring in the skein. Honestly I had to look hard to look rather hard to find something to buy in the little yarn shop I sought out. I guess it felt a bit like a yarn store aimed a baby knitting. Nothing wrong with knitting for babies but it is not my thing and I really don't care for pastels. 

Hey at least this yarn identifies itself as sock yarn, and not only that it is Best Sock, sock yarn!

It is not like I was walking out the door without any yarn, let alone leaving the Best Sock yarn behind. Marketing claims need testing for science if nothing else.

Now I regret buying only one skein. (Realistically though have you ever heard me regret buying too much yarn? Right because too much yarn does not exist!) I am enjoying knitting this way more than I thought I would. 

I think it is the little flecks of blue that made me fall in love. Plus shh don't tell anyone but I love a stripey sock almost as much as D likes wearing them. I mean come on light grey, dark grey, medium grey, hey is that a hint of blue? Yes look at that blue. It is just so much fun to knit.

I will admit to getting a head start on these since I needed something for a quick drive up to Santa Fe before the New Year hit. As much as I silently scoff at commercially wound up yarn, it is so convenient to grab a ready to go skein and a set of needles and hit the road as a passenger. No winding no impatient hubby standing by the door with keys in his hands. Oh he was still there he just had to wait less time for me to gather myself together. 

Next up you know I cannot be too long without multiple socks on the needles. I had to cast on this lovely yarn too. This one is called 2020 to 2019: Hold my Beer. As we enter our third year of Covid, 2019 is just taking on a rosy hue or is that sepia tones of wistful thinking? Anyways the yarn knits nice and I am enjoying how this one pools itself in bright stripe-ish ways. Glad I bought a few different skeins from this dyer.

I was going to show off a pair of socks that need some reconstructive knitting but Melissa proclaimed herself to be more worthy of photo shoots than smelly old yarn or socks!

 

Then big bro added his orangeness to the convo with a heavy sigh and we were done with photo shoots.

Remember to give yourself enough self care. You're the only you we have.

Baking Again

While the kitchen is smaller than I am used to, I have been baking more. There is something to be said for a small kitchen that is well organized. Mostly that it is not my kitchen. Smaller can be better and I am working my way towards getting it organized as best I can. It does have a pantry and a place for our chest freezer and I am so thankful for that!

I was so worried about baking at high altitude. I read up on it and found there are several things you can do to compensate. Since the air pressure is less here the water boils at a lower temp and we have to brew our tea for a longer time. Tea is all sorted. As for baking the goods are going to raise quickly and easily due to less air pressure, pressing back on it. You want the baked goods to not rise quite as much and set faster. So this means less leaveners, and a higher oven temp. Both of those have been easy to do. I just tap off a bit more of the leaveners and raised the oven temp by five degrees. Since it is dry here I have been adding a bit more liquid than I had to in wet Oregon. Not really measured just splash, splash, wetter dough.

First up for Christmas I made my beloved dinner rolls. For these I just made sure I had a wetter dough. They were deemed worthy.

Also since it is dry here it is best to get things bagged up and not sit around too long. By dry I mean we have less than 20% humidity in here some days. I know I am getting a few humidifiers and you may want to invest in lotion company stock because I will be buying more! 

I found a bookstore while out and about one day. It may not be Powell's but it does have some local interesting books. There is a recipe for Sopapillas in it. Sopapillas are puffed up fried dough usually served with honey. They are the best local food item I have found. Yeah the chiles are wonderful here and you get asked red or green, but the Sopapillas and honey? Pure heaven. 

Next up D thought we should try baking in the bread machine and see if that is different. Once again we had to add water while it was mixing but it came out fine. Maybe not perfect but still tasty and able to make some nice sandwiches.

But my true victory and love Pumpkin Bread! And I had eggs this time so none of that weird peanut butter as a binding agent pumpkin bread. That stuff tasted like peanut butter bread and fooled no one. It was fine but peanut butter tastes like peanut butter no matter what you mix it with and why you mix it in.

Back to my favorite bread. Yum yum. I am so happy that D went vegetarian for a few years because it made him try different foods that he never would have touched before. My major bonus from that time? He likes nuts in baked goods now. I never realized how much I missed them till I got them back. I am still thinking twice about putting raisins in pumpkin bread like this recipe lists as an option. I may try it and love it but not happening for a while!

We both agree my scones are better here. Something about the higher temp gives a caramelized shell that I like. He just likes a more baked scone. 

I made some gingerbread alpaca cookies but the decorating just looks horrible so they are tasty enough to eat but not to post I guess. Gingersnaps are on my to bake list but I like a softer cookie so these may not live up to the Great British Bake Off snap standard. When I am baking for me and D that should be OK right?

Unrelated but I do have to brag that I finally once again am caught up in my knitting journal. I feel so put together when that happens! I also have one and a half socks to show for my knitting efforts so far. Not a pair but a sock. Oh well I'm happy so that is all that matters. 

New Knitting Stuff

Ah WEBS you tricksy yarn store you! I opened my email on Christmas morning and saw this adorable bag up on offer as part of a kit. What can I say I am a sucker for knitting snowmen. Plus it came with a bunch of stuff that I wanted to try out, and an enamel snowman pin that matches the bag. It is like you were calling my name.

With no festivals to attend for the last few years my yarn purchases have been fewer. Sometimes you just have to reward yourself for not falling to pieces. I blame that multi-color blanket I should be working on. It is so pretty and fun to knit with its color changes.

Above is all that came with the kit. Yes I am now the proud owner of pom pom makers? OK fine I don't see myself as a pom pom kind of girl but hey whatever, I like all the other stuff and who knows I may be fully prepared for that pom pom emergency I did not plan for.

Then I added more colors because hey I really like yarn y'all! While I was at it some sock yarn caught my attention, because when does sock yarn not have my attention? And two of those skeins came with a tape measure. Who doesn't need another tape measure?

A sock yarn that will especially get my attention is one with a colorway name of Quiet Time. You know this girl is just praying for some nice quiet knitting time, and the cats are too because that means lap time.

 

This last ball quietly hid in the basket while all the others got their class picture taken. Now this one was a bit of a surprise, on the screen it was a deeper orange and I am not sure if I will ever fall in love with it. I do know it will make fantastic socks that someone will love. A bit more color diversity is just what I need.  I never used to like the color orange till I started knitting. Knitting sure opens up the world of color. So many interesting combinations that I never would have combined. Plus as a sock knitter I can get away with dang near anything for colors. It is not like it is going to make my feet look washed out or sickly. And if it does what the heck are you doing that close to my feet!?

Now I am going to go dig out that blanket that I had to put on hold to reach my sock goal last year and knit some on it. It has probably been long enough that I will screw it up and have to frog back but hey at least I will be knitting!